Setting:
A free speech event at any university. A group of academics and “experts” stand behind a podium on a campus green in front of a towering university building. The architecture is seventies style minimalism now mostly viewed as boring and outdated. Students sit on towels and blankets and prepare themselves to be entertained and bored. The first speaker is the event organizer and the head of the journalism department. He takes the mic. Tests it. Lowers it and begins to speak…..

Speaker:
In these trying times, Free Speech, is an important topic. Today our “freedom of speech” is being questioned by global terrorism. Journalism is under attack daily. How far can our freedoms protect us before our speech is perceived as hate speech or slander. Today is our time to stand up for what we believe in. To use our speech to encourage open dialogue. It is this freedom that allows us to peacefully gather. It is our freedoms which allow us to discuss topics from varying views. Giving us a process through which we can share and disagree with each other without consequence. Allowing us to understand each other better if not one day come to consensus on what our freedoms really are and where they come from; a nation, a religion, a god or the universe itself. Also, how best might we protect them……

Setting:
Off at the far end of the green there is a man with a bullhorn. He begins to respond to the speaker as if he is personally being addressed.

Bullhorn:
Freedom is only an illusion. Our phones are being tracked. Our keywords searched and indexed. This conversation is being evaluated. You speak of freedom but if this day goes poorly there won’t be another Freedom of Speech day. Your freedoms are as secure as your ability to pay for your mortgage or health care. Your ability to pay your bills. You are only one paycheck away from losing your freedoms.

Speaker:
Thank you sir for your input. I applaud your efforts to speak out but this day is for invited speakers only. Currently we don’t have time to hear everyone’s voice. But there will be another Free Speech Day next year.

Bullhorn:
Freedom is an illusion. Presented to you by who is on the invited guest speaker list. What experience do they represent on the subject matter. Their resumes. Their affiliations with groups that can help build the universities connections locally and nationally. To pad more resumes. To help develop and one day publish more research on a paper that will only lead to more research. Which will attract more professors which will produce more students.

Speaker:
(Now whispering off the mic.) Can we get security over there? Yes, the man with the bullhorn. Thank you. I know. I know. I’ll explain later. He will ruin the event.

Bullhorn:
I can hear you Mr. Speaker. Professor of journalism. You are trying to remove someone intent on sharing their opinion on the very topic for which this day has been organized to present. Your freedom is an illusion of do’s and don’ts. The public and private stage. What do your neighbors think? What does your Dean think. Are you worthy of tenure? Your voice is irrelevant. They are asking themselves, “How little will he rock the boat?

Speaker:
Enough. I will not let you take over this event with your voice. You will have to leave campus property or be arrested.

Bullhorn:
I will not leave. I was not invited. I am not represented. I am not on the list of local “experts”. I represent the freedom you do not have. I am the voice you wish you could proclaim as your own. Never having to self edit before speaking. Filterless. Free dumb. Unrestrained. Your Free Speech Day is a hoax. An event to make you believe you have freedom or represent the freedom so few actually will ever have.

Speaker:
But we can speak today without fear of being shot, beheaded, imprisoned or tortured.

Bullhorn:
Why have a head when you can’t use it. The only truly free people in the world are the artists. The whistleblowers, The provocateurs. The homeless. The bridge burners. The questionably sane. The ones who do not have to worry about how their voice is perceived. Who need no resumes. The ones who are truly free, speak through bullhorns and do not stand behind podiums. Are most likely never seen. They are invisible. Are unheard of. Are too risky to invite to speak. Do not have multiple degrees. And when they are asked to leave, they speak louder. When threatened with death, speak louder. Will take a bullet for you and me. Their freedom is radical. They are truly free.

Interview with self about Living in a Bubble under the Sea and Mars One:

Why have you begun to design the first permanent underwater human settlement?

Well, it’s a good question. See, I’m no scientists. I admit to my basic understanding of just about everything but I still fully believe in climate change. I see it now in the coldest Winter the United States has ever seen. I see it in the worst droughts we’ve seen in a decades. I see it in the viciousness of Hurricane Sandy and how that affected the Northeast. I see it in the horrible typhoons that have erupted all over the planet. Not to mention earthquakes caused by fracking. The earth’s crust is not happy.

Okay, so you aren’t a scientist. Why do you think you can pull this off? Why now?

I see a world in chaos. I see war and famine. The potential for our planet to be in full global war and extinction of all animals is possible due to the stupidity of humanity. I don’t see that chaos under the ocean and I don’t believe we have investigated all the possible human habitation zones. We have the technology now to do so. Underwater cities are possible. The ocean would be a great shelter from climate change. Also, if we want to come up for vacation in some stale or radioactive air we can do so. It’s just so much more doable than the Mars One mission.

Is this a spoof on Mars One? Do you not think that mission is possible?

It is a spoof and it isn’t. I don’t think Mars One is possible. I am fearful of anyone who would like to sign their life away to go to a desert planet. I don’t find that to be a sane choice and I would never want to live with anyone on a distant planet who has basically committed suicide by signing up for it.

Do you think this was at all inspired by the squirrel on Spongebob Squarepants?

Yes. It is an exact copy. I see, Sandy Cheeks, the squirrel as a true pioneer. A true scientists. She lives in an upside down aquarium under the sea. What a badass. That’s what i want to create. A perfect habitat that can be sustainable and contained.

So a cartoon inspired you? Isn’t that a bit silly?

It’s as silly as the Jetsons. People are still asking for their flying cars and no one tells them that was from a cartoon. No one tells them to stop asking. So no, it’s not silly. We still want what we see can happen in the human imagination. I find it a lot less silly than the Mars One mission.

Why do you find Mars One as impossible?

I find it to be ridiculous actually. Not just silly but absurd. I really believe it’s a scam and at the end of it it will just be a big reality TV show for the world to watch. If the people make it there the whole thing will be on cameras. They will live like lab rats before they die. If they make it that is.

You don’t think the science is possible yet?

I already said, I’m not a scientist, but no. It’s not possible because I said so but because many of the most revered scientists and astronauts have spoken out against it, saying that it is a suicide mission. I also believe that we owe it to any astronauts that we send up, to bring them back to down to their families. If folks are so willing to leave the planet without even trying to fix it or learn how to use their amazing potential as underwater dwellers then I say send them to fight foreign wars. If they don’t like it here so much, give them a rifle and have them fight ISIS or better yet create something that will help us sustain life above water.

What are your current plans for your underwater mission?

I’m at the I don’t give a fuck stage. Which I would call psychologically as batshit crazy. You won’t see any real plans. There must be an underwater cave we can start off in. Why can’t we live there? Why can’t we grow food underwater? Farm the ocean for plant life. Why do we have to go to Mars? Mars seems much less habitable than the Earth’s oceans. Life on Mars will be horrible, we’ll be continually looking for water, on Earth I’ll be living in water. If it actually happens, which it won’t, I see this as long term. Millions of years. Humans need to evolve back into sea creatures. We need to have gills. We need to befriend our mammalian sea family and learn from them. We need echolocation which we now know that humans still possess but just need to learn again.

In summary, what would you say to the world about life on our dying planet?

You haven’t seen anything yet. Get prepared. Get inventive. If you think it’s going to happen soon, you haven’t read your history, and I’m not a historian either. Life is hard headed. Humans have been through hell and back and we will continue to find ways to live on earth even with climate change. All we had was opposable thumbs and big brains and we made it this far. How far can we make it with science and technology? Don’t give up on Earth and it won’t give up on you.

]]>http://www.globatron.org/featured/ocean-one-mission/feed0MRI of ISIS with Contrasthttp://www.globatron.org/choken-word/mri-of-isis-with-contrast
http://www.globatron.org/choken-word/mri-of-isis-with-contrast#commentsThu, 19 Feb 2015 21:25:52 +0000http://www.globatron.org/?p=18873You want to make sense out of nonsense.

]]>http://www.globatron.org/featured/just-like-you/feed0A World With No Headhttp://www.globatron.org/featured/a-world-with-no-head
http://www.globatron.org/featured/a-world-with-no-head#commentsTue, 10 Feb 2015 19:23:53 +0000http://www.globatron.org/?p=18860RIP #KenjiGoto: you can cut a man's head off but

]]>http://www.globatron.org/featured/a-world-with-no-head/feed0Coming out of the Foghttp://www.globatron.org/featured/coming-out-of-the-fog
http://www.globatron.org/featured/coming-out-of-the-fog#commentsFri, 23 Jan 2015 22:05:57 +0000http://www.globatron.org/?p=18856When you think that the odds are against you.

When you think that the odds are against you.
When you think that you can’t do a thing.
Think about Charlie Hebdo.
Think about Sandy Hook Elementary.
Think about the lost soldiers and civilians
massacred for no sane name.
Think about all the hunger.
All the displaced refugees.
Who wander the world blindly
only wanting to return to home.
Think about the rights we speak of.
The right to say what you want.
Think about the courage it takes to come out
in a country that will kill you.
To speak up.
To be present.
To be your true self.
Think about how far we’ve come.
Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Pope Francis
And how far we have to go.
#BlackLivesMatter #JeSuisCharlie
Think about your ability to think.
How we communicate ideas.
When you think the odds are against you
because they probably are.
Try to remember to think,
because it matters,
because you can,
until the last breath you whisper.
THINK: Until your mind is sand.

Ceremony Commencement: (Mayor speaking)
“We are gathered here, on this day to recover
a time capsule from 100 years ago.
Please, with white gloves, commence the
observation.”

Observation:
No precious metal could have saved it.
Rusty ball, with perfect signs of decay inside-out.
Time is patient with its patterns.
A forgotten world of blue patina deeply stains.
Bolts no longer held snug by nuts.
Box once melted together,
titanium welded shut.

All human DNA ever collected ready
for genetic download. All animals ever
known, exist now only in code.

This our life’s collection written
to pass along all of earthly evolution
in a box, for a single upload.
Transceiver to receiver, never quiver. Listen
Before you there is wonder.
For those who have survived,
there is time.

End of Transmission.

Audience Participation:
I thought this was going to give us a map
to some food?
What is DNA?
What is a library?
When he writes the word code, is that code
for something?
This thing says there is time but we are starving.
Can we sell it?
Who would buy it?

Mayor:
We need to see the big picture here.
Our entire forgotten history and the keys to all
the animals have been given back to us.
I know it’s hard to hear through a poem
that it will be okay but we are alive. And
we do have time.

Maybe in the next time capsule, we put in it
some matches or a mirror or something. Diamonds.
Gold. Photos we can see without a machine.
Information we can use without knowing anything.

Audience:
And now Mayor?

Mayor:
We put it back. Open it in another hundred years.
Maybe we’ll have science again by then.
Maybe we can be human one day again. For now
Winter is coming, there is no time to spare.
The rest of the day, collect fuel for fire. Stay warm,
another storm is coming.

Survivors of wars and storms.
Pain our oldest teacher.
Pain our moral connector.
Drink more water than your
share, receive a six.
Shower more than once a week,
receive a memorable eight.

Eat more than one needs
receive a near deadly nine.
Ten for cutting down healthy trees.
Eleven will kill.
Reserved for hurting others.
Destroying environment.

Pain feedback mechanism to instill,
no more room for error.
Fewer Remainders the better.
All actions monitored.
We learned; Earth did feel.
each and every drop spilled.
Resources wasted and hoarded.
Earth burnt to its spine.

Neural pain network update complete,
Cleanse the world of the unworthy.
The polluters. The murderers. The war mongers.
All living cancers relieved by their own free will.
Global neural pain network update: FEEL

]]>http://www.globatron.org/choken-word/feel/feed0I Am Become Lifehttp://www.globatron.org/choken-word/i-am-become-life
http://www.globatron.org/choken-word/i-am-become-life#commentsFri, 14 Nov 2014 21:45:23 +0000http://www.globatron.org/?p=17552Thank you Mr. Oppenheiber:
If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky,
that would be like the splendor of the mighty one ...[5][108]

I guess my biggest problem with
the drones was the noise.
I didn’t like hearing them flying overhead.
There is no fence high enough.
Nothing that could recreate silence.

But life was just so easy.
No more traffic jams.
No more drive through.
No more waiting in line.

The first year, the birds were killed.
The second, it was like clock work.
Everything on time.
No pizzas ever cold.

Then the drones created offspring.
Swarms of drones.
They could create anything.
Fly in formations that were
as beautiful as any sunset.

There was no war against them.
I heard one man shot a few out of
formation using a shotgun.
We all dreamed of that but a few
drones took him out. That was it.
It is a felony assault to kill drones.

Global commerce is just too lucrative to disrupt.
Even the drones can’t stop it.
As smart as their programming might be.
As huge as the server farm from which
they fly free. Their motto. Our creed.
I am become Life, the Creator of Worlds.

……..

Thank you Mr. Oppenheiber:

If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one …[5][108]

Years later he would explain that another verse had also entered his head at that time: namely, the famous verse: “k?lo’smi lokak?ayak?tprav?ddho lok?nsam?hartumiha prav?tta?” (XI,32),[109] which he translated as “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”[note 2]

In 1965, he was persuaded to quote again for a television broadcast:

We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.[3]

]]>http://www.globatron.org/choken-word/i-am-become-life/feed0Cocoonhttp://www.globatron.org/featured/cocoon-2
http://www.globatron.org/featured/cocoon-2#commentsFri, 14 Nov 2014 21:42:40 +0000http://www.globatron.org/?p=17547Write. Code. Program. 4D printer, print body parts for new society. Invent creations laid out for the very few. Learn to program poetry. Following will be inventions for survival. There will be no rivals. There will be no politics. No room for error. There will be no climbing ladders. No glass ceiling. It will be […]

Write. Code. Program. 4D printer, print body parts for new society. Invent creations laid out for the very few. Learn to program poetry. Following will be inventions for survival. There will be no rivals. There will be no politics. No room for error. There will be no climbing ladders. No glass ceiling. It will be laid bare. Exploded. Burnt crisp and cooked rare. A wall will be built. The survivors will ask for more gear. More air. Food will run out soon, beware.

Program: design tree. Each survivor: one seed. Take seed deep into woods. Seed coded to support life, of one. Tree will grow as large as one needs. Lifespan: supply food crops and protein for life of three generations. Human and plant. Final: symbiotic relationship. Engineered to sustain life. To sustain earth. To filter air. To produce fresh water. Once tree harvests first fruit, wind proof dome will cocoon. When water rises, roots detach. Find room. Program: float forward. C:/>VERIFY

]]>http://www.globatron.org/featured/cocoon-2/feed0Howlhttp://www.globatron.org/choken-word/howl
http://www.globatron.org/choken-word/howl#commentsFri, 14 Nov 2014 21:37:56 +0000http://www.globatron.org/?p=17544A wolf howls deep on a mountain top lost to the human eye. As we shop down below on the open, strip mall prairie. Cornered. Hunted down. All rational instinct stolen. Forced to believe in the supernatural. Not natural. Not the here and now, but the hereafter. He no longer hunts. He sits on his […]

A wolf howls
deep on a mountain top
lost to the human eye.
As we shop down below
on the open, strip mall prairie.
Cornered.
Hunted down.
All rational instinct stolen.
Forced to believe in the supernatural.
Not natural. Not the here and now,
but the hereafter.
He no longer hunts.
He sits on his prison top perch and howls.
A deep OOOOOOOOWWWWW!
To let it all out.
All the progress
of a millions years
of evolution made.
To sweep it all away
in one day.
Slowly regressing to his grave.
He looks out and perceives, no future.
His life snuffed out by lack of food and water.
Water now so rare he licks the leaves
when the morning dew rises.
Let the waters rise.
Let the ocean tides
rinse the Earth clean
of all toxic thinking
that has made the wolf
crave another land,
to one day hunt man again.

]]>http://www.globatron.org/choken-word/howl/feed0In Defense of Poetshttp://www.globatron.org/featured/in-defense-of-poets
http://www.globatron.org/featured/in-defense-of-poets#commentsFri, 17 Oct 2014 16:04:53 +0000http://www.globatron.org/?p=17540If the shit ever hits the fan, and we find ourselves selecting a group to start over, don’t count us out. We might not know how to hunt or fish or garden. We might not know how to govern or how to lead. We might not know medicine or construction. We might not know how […]

Close your eyes, close your eyes! Close ‘em! Now, describe what you see.

Byron King: Uh, I-I close my eyes.

John Keating: Yes.

Byron King: Uh, and I see the line.

John Keating: An endless line.

Byron King: An endless line that devours space and time.

John Keating: Oh, that’s *excellent*! Now, give it action – make it do something!

Byron King: It pulls me in and stretches me out.

John Keating: That’s it! Wonderful, wonderful!

Byron King: And all time is screaming.

John Keating: What’s it screaming?

Byron King: Screaming Justice.

John Keating: Yeah, yes.

Byron King: Justice like-like a jacket too small you can’t move.

John Keating: [some of the class start to laugh] Forget them, forget them! Stay with the jacket. Tell me about that jacket!

Byron King: Y-Y-You try it on, it is too long, too thick. You try to take it off, it binds you, it’ll never let you go. From the instance the deed is done, till the instance judgement is passed, justice will be had. It will hunt and grab the guilty. For the innocence lost. For the innocent lives murdered. Dead. Relentless.

]]>http://www.globatron.org/choken-word/relentless/feed0To Wash the World of Fearhttp://www.globatron.org/choken-word/to-wash-the-world-of-fear
http://www.globatron.org/choken-word/to-wash-the-world-of-fear#commentsFri, 17 Oct 2014 15:32:35 +0000http://www.globatron.org/?p=17531If a cure for hate was contagious. If peace was a virus. Would we cary it from town to town? Would we fly it into another country? Undetected. Unfettered. Fluids swapped. Airborne soldiers dropped. Would it sweep the world like a storm? Hurricane force winds swarm. Infecting our minds and media. News channels changed from […]

]]>http://www.globatron.org/choken-word/to-wash-the-world-of-fear/feed0We Could Have Beenhttp://www.globatron.org/choken-word/we-could-have-been
http://www.globatron.org/choken-word/we-could-have-been#commentsFri, 17 Oct 2014 15:25:17 +0000http://www.globatron.org/?p=17528I could have been a doctor, a lawyer, a scientist, an architect. I could have been respected, well off, helpful. I could have been somebody, elected, official. I could have been religious, well traveled, well dressed. I could have been a lot of things I was told to be. I chose to make art. Not […]

I could have been
a doctor,
a lawyer,
a scientist,
an architect.
I could have been
respected,
well off,
helpful.
I could have been
somebody,
elected,
official.
I could have been
religious,
well traveled,
well dressed.
I could have been
a lot of things
I was told to be.

I chose to make art.
Not because I had no choice
but because I had them all.
I chose to have a voice.
To be true to my heart.
That beats with cadence.
That feels the rhythm,
the pattern, the connection.
That sees the beauty
we all take for granted.
That wishes to speak
for those who can’t.
To help find the right words.

For those, who are unable to
because of their
upbringing,
programming,
culture,
laws,
government,
religion.

I chose to be nothing.
Unworthy of saving.
A fly on the wall.
Disposable.
To listen.
To take many positions
if only for a moment.
To be a chameleon.
To be versatile in vision.
To believe in the infinite.

To try and understand why
humanity can be
anything it wants to be.
If only it chooses to be.

]]>http://www.globatron.org/choken-word/we-could-have-been/feed0We Willhttp://www.globatron.org/choken-word/we-will
http://www.globatron.org/choken-word/we-will#commentsSat, 04 Oct 2014 18:58:26 +0000http://www.globatron.org/?p=17524 we will fix it. with imagination. with our own creation. mixing genetics and technology. engineering botany. with faster growing trees. injected with bamboo to freeze time. to regrow in days. soak up carbon like a mop. vacuum up poison from the air. regulate our toxins. purge our history from the soil. we will make […]

we will fix it. with imagination. with our own creation. mixing genetics and technology. engineering botany. with faster growing trees. injected with bamboo to freeze time. to regrow in days. soak up carbon like a mop. vacuum up poison from the air. regulate our toxins. purge our history from the soil.

we will make it. homes that are grown from the ground. only one seed per family. to grow a human habitat. able to withstand a hurricane. able to floatthrough a storm. solar stills will make our own water. solar cells will power all our needs. gardens on the walls. carved into each room. self-regulating permaculture. each plant helping the other. to form a micro climate of life. to support all life. we will harvest space and time. one drop. a million. drops of water circulating from the ceiling’s pitch to the ground. a structure that heals. leaks will glue themselves shut. biology our energy. no longer our enemy. life making life.

we will dream it. see it in our mind’s eye. let it sit there for a while. simmer. boil. take it out and put it down with graphite on paper. brush and oils. imagine it. thirst for it. know that it is all possible. that all of human knowledge has been for this. to make structures that are made of living earth and plant life. that will grow to fit our will. as we in return grow more attentive. more aware of each choice. everything used. weeds designed to form furniture. outer walls as hard as shells. biomorphic. anthropomorphic. a mirror of our cells, ourselves.
freedom for humanity. expunging all sickness and disease.

]]>http://www.globatron.org/choken-word/we-will/feed0Dearly Departedhttp://www.globatron.org/choken-word/dearly-departed
http://www.globatron.org/choken-word/dearly-departed#commentsSat, 04 Oct 2014 18:56:22 +0000http://www.globatron.org/?p=17520all severed heads speak one last sentence before bleeding out. dismembered. burnt tongues. one final transmission. they speak through you purveyors of death. sons of Seth. you participate through viewing their timeless execution. before they transition what final word? what could be heard? a call for vengeance. a prayer for peace. love from the departed. […]

]]>http://www.globatron.org/choken-word/dearly-departed/feed0The Random Story Machine:http://www.globatron.org/featured/the-random-story-machine
http://www.globatron.org/featured/the-random-story-machine#commentsFri, 05 Sep 2014 16:38:12 +0000http://www.globatron.org/?p=17513I could say why not? Why share my story with you or anyone? I suppose you could. I suppose you could take it with you. Where would I be taking it? Do you know? I didn’t say I knew anything. I just said maybe you don’t want to share. And why would I? Why would […]

I didn’t say I knew anything.
I just said maybe you don’t want to share.

And why would I?
Why would I share with you or anyone?

Maybe because through sharing it
you could help yourself.
Maybe help others.

Why would I want to help others?
Why would I want to help myself?
Are you implying there is a greater good.
A reason to this disease.

I’m just trying to see why you wouldn’t.
You are putting words in my mouth.

Well say there is something.
Some reason for sickness.
Some reason to war.
Some reason to all the violence
and atrocities of the human condition.

Okay. I’m saying there is a reason.

What would that reason be?

To wake people up.
To wake up the world maybe.

Wake it up from what?

From a slumber.
A sleep walking.
A dream state.

Well that’s quite a leap but I’ll follow you.

Maybe we are here as speakers
for something greater than our bodies.
Maybe the experience is a jolt to those
who need it.

By experience you are saying Cancer, correct?

Yes, the bloody C word. You know what I’m saying.

Okay, well I’m listening.
So we are chosen then?

I’m not saying chosen but yes, maybe. Like random.
A lottery. Those who get it hit the jackpot.

The good jackpot or the bad? There is no cancer lottery.

Okay. Point taken. Let’s not call it a lottery.

What should we call it then?

How about a random story machine.

Okay, well that’s a good one. It has a flow to it.

Well in this random story machine, humanity is tested.
This random story machine could be for other horrors as well.
Anything that pushes one beyond their physical and mental abilities.

What type of horrors?

The typical horrors. The news horrors. The horrors on the television.
On your smart phone. The ones you try to ignore. Beheadings. Bombings. Climate change. War. Genocide. Extinction.

Okay, okay… I get it. So all of those horrors are story generators. Random.

Yes, it is very possible.

Very possible what?

That each horror, cancer in this case is generating a story for each individual and each family who experiences cancer.

I can see that.

So why would you tell your story to anyone if everyone has one?
Everyone has a horror in their life. A death. A war. A famine.

Maybe so we can all learn from it? Maybe so the pain is worth something? Maybe so that when it’s all over, you have something to give to the survivors? Something to give to yourself?

Why would I want to give anything to anyone? Myself?

Well that’s not the question you want to ask in the end is it?
You’re lying there on your death bed, a year or fifty years from now
and you get to ask that? How’d you think you’d feel?

Well, like crap I suppose? Like I didn’t dot all my eyes. Like I didn’t finish the sentence of my life.

And what if you had a paragraph to share? Or even a whole novel?

But what if my paragraph or novel is not worth sharing? Is not good enough? Is too short?

Is that why you would not share? Because you are not good enough?

I suppose so. Never thought of it that way. I guess that’s why I don’t write or speak about it.

Who are you comparing yourself to?

The great writers. I like Hemingway.

What do you like about Hemingway.

He was heroic. He was plain spoken. Honest. He lived and died exactly how he wanted to.

That’s a good point. He did blow his head off too.

I don’t want to blow my head off. I never said that.

I didn’t say you did, but you said he was heroic for doing so.

I didn’t say that at all. I just think he was kind of a real man.

And you’re not?

I don’t know what I am. I got cancer and then that was my story. I never really got to be a man. I was just beginning. Just starting my life. Just a year over thirty.

Okay, so you’re not old enough to tell your story?

Maybe I feel I haven’t lived long enough to have a story. At least not one that is interesting enough to tell.

Well you just said above that cancer is your story.

Is that enough? Can a disease be my story? How can that help anyone?
I’m sure there have been times when you thought you had reached the end, that you weren’t going to live much longer through treatment?

Sure, I have. Cancer is scary shit. It hits hard. A cancer diagnosis makes your stomach hurt automatically. I felt like I was going to throw up. When I was in the ER and the doctor said I had a brain tumor, I could not believe it.

Why couldn’t you believe it?

Because I was healthy. Was lifting weights. Was running. My wife and I had just had a baby girl. We were starting our lives together.

Then want?

Cancer.

Cancer what?

It entered our lives. It took all the space up in the ER room. All the space in our home for a while. We were rushing all up and down the east coast to make sure that the diagnosis was correct. It was.

What did you guys do?

We freaked out.

Cancer is scary.

Yes it is fucking scary. We went online and damn, you don’t want to read about it. You don’t want to read about lifespans or prognosis on any brain tumor. Any of them.

]]>http://www.globatron.org/featured/the-random-story-machine/feed0Stand Your Groundhttp://www.globatron.org/uncategorized/stand-your-ground
http://www.globatron.org/uncategorized/stand-your-ground#commentsFri, 05 Sep 2014 16:35:40 +0000http://www.globatron.org/?p=17510Florida. What will you do when they come for you. On your coasts. Never hiding from the storms. As you beckon to carpetbaggers new to perch on your beaches. To steal your sacred views by destroying animal habitats. To buy homes to retire on buried cul-de-sacs. What will you do when the big one comes […]

Florida. What will you do
when they come for you.
On your coasts. Never hiding
from the storms. As you beckon to
carpetbaggers new to perch on
your beaches. To steal your
sacred views by destroying animal
habitats. To buy homes
to retire on buried cul-de-sacs.
What will you do when the big
one comes for you.

Florida. Have you heard the
news. You are wacko.
Bat shit. Crazy. Your
hanging chad election will never
be forgotten. You changed history
with your magic numbers and
uncounted disenfranchised voters.
But you stand your ground.
You shoot the unarmed.
Why are your judges and jurors so
blind to justice. #Trayvonmartin

What will you do when the
big one comes for you. When
the waters wipe your cities away.
When your downtowns are under
water. Florida. What will
you do in your strip malls
for culture when there are no roofs,
no walls to protect you from your electric
storms. No food to stock your big box
shelves. No gas to migrate North again.
No water to drink but from your ocean views.
Florida. Katrina would have been the death of you.